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(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)
(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)
(Jesse Duquette, @jrduquette)
(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)
(Kevin Kallaugher, Baltimore Sun)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
From CNN's report on the individual who exploded the Tesla Cybertruck outside of MF Trump's Las Vegas hotel. The perpetrator, Matt Livelsberger, wasn't ISIS or an "illegal" at all, but a MAGAt:
“When President Trump was in office (Livelsberger) would comment on his Facebook page about the things President Trump had said or done or how he’s helping the military,” the relative, who asked not to be named, told CNN. “Matt had a lot of respect for Mr. Trump – he just loved the guy.”
Another xenophobic, Islamophobic MAGAt theory, er, going up in flames, at least for those outside of the MAGA cult.
Fake prayer deliverer MAGA Mike "New Moses" Johnson and his emoji alternative ... --
HOLY SHIT, Mike Johnson has already lost his third vote, he could only afford to lose ONE. In the time it took to post this, a third Republican voted for Byron Donalds! 😆 Hakeem Jeffries hasn't lost ONE single vote.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 1:36 PM
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Mike Johnson may not win the House speaker vote. The GOP should elect this emoji instead: 😠. It fits their whole vibe. My sensible column: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
— Rex Huppke (@rexhuppke.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 11:12 AM
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Before the Speaker vote today, a reminder that Mike Johnson said that in the days before he became Speaker the first time, God repeatedly woke him up in the middle of the night to deliver very specific instructions on the workings of the House GOP caucus. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 9:45 AM
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... and the darkness in our civic life --
The sad reality is, the overwhelming majority of Americans don't know there's a voter for the Speaker going on, don't care & won't be able to name him after the vote. This is what happens in a country where civics education is no longer universal. Its absence lets darkness settle in over democracy.
— Joyce White Vance (@joycewhitevance.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 1:21 PM
On to the next MAGAt conspiracy theory! --
I’m starting to get the vibe that the consensus amongst the MAGA intelligencia yesterday that this was a coordinated terrorist attack by ISIS through the southern border may have been off a little. On to the next!
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 10:11 PM
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What 77 million Americans voted for --
The incoming Trump administration plans to target the National Climate Assessment so that it can't be used to defend regulations in court. Russ Vought, Trump's OMB pick, wants to personally approve a team of climate denialists to rewrite it. www.eenews.net/articles/tru...
— Scott Waldman (@scottpwaldman.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 11:29 AM
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Game recognizes game --
As someone who has written critically about the late 20th/early 21st century US efforts to export the rule of law around the world, I find it particularly rich that we're now exporting naked lawlessness and impunity, courtesy of our utterly unprincipled and supine "Supreme Court"
— Paul Gowder (@paulgowder.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 11:27 AM
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What's that Musk-y smell? Dumpsters outselling Cybertrucks --
Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous - despite 1 million pre-orders, demand has evaporated - Tesla delivered only about 10,000 cybertrucks in the 4th quarter - this issue isn't production, it's demand electrek.co/2025/01/02/t...
— Christopher Mims (@mims.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 8:15 AM
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"Happy Friday!" has no statute of limitations --
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year….please respect the Larry David statute of limitations on the New Year 🤣
— WuTangIsForTheChildren (@wutangforchildren.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 2:16 PM
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Happy 80th(!) birthday to Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, CSN/CSNY, Manassas and work with artists ranging from Al Kooper to Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and more. Here are two early Stills songs, 1967's "Rock & Roll Woman" with Buffalo Springfield, and 1969's "Wooden Ships" (co- written with David Crosby and Paul Kantner). Hope you enjoy.
The circus is back in town, so send in the clowns (our emphasis):
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Republicans will face a first test of their control of both chambers of Congress on Friday when they decide whether to keep Mike Johnson in the powerful role of Speaker of the House of Representatives.
House Republicans have proven themselves an unruly bunch over the past two years -- first electing Johnson after taking the unprecedented step of ousting his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in the middle of his term -- and will have a scant 219-215 majority when their new members are sworn in on Friday.Trump sought to clear the way for a smooth ride after he endorsed Johnson on Monday following weeks of uncertainty."Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN," Trump posted online.Johnson this week has tried to project confidence. "We have the smallest margin in U.S. history. We’ll have a margin of probably two votes ... but I think we'll get it done," the speaker told Fox News on Thursday about his chances. "We cannot afford any palace drama here." [Ed.: easy prediction -- there will be continual palace drama there and in the MF's very- White House.]Maverick Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a regular thorn in the saddle for his party's leaders, has vowed to vote against Johnson. Several other party members have been coy about whether they would back him.More than one vote against Johnson, or multiple Republican abstentions in the form of "present" votes, would be enough to block Johnson's re-election if all Democrats vote for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as they are expected to do. [snip]Massie argued on social media this week against Johnson's leadership abilities within the Republican conference."He won’t tell the President what is achievable and what is not achievable in the House, and he lacks the situational awareness himself to know what can pass and what cannot," Massie said, "The emperor has no clothes and the entire conference knows it but few will say it. The general public knows it too."
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(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)
(Marty Two Bulls, m2bulls.com)
(Pedro Molina, Counterpoint)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)
(Joline Jourdain, The New Yorker)
NOTE: As with millions of other Americans, we're now following "skeets" on Bluesky social media rather than that rancid platform owned by President Musk.
Sanewashing the MF, cont. --
This isn’t rocket science. He lied. He pushed erroneous garbage without knowing facts, knowing full well his base will never pay attention to the clarification.
— Bradley P. Moss (@bradmossesq.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 10:53 PM
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A metaphor for the times --
If you were going to choose a metaphor for our current state of politics, a Tesla Cybertruck exploding and burning in front of a Trump Tower in Las Vegas, a city where millions of Americans go each year to lose their money, is pretty spot on.
— Melanie D’Arrigo (@darrigomelanie.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 1:11 PM
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🎵 Don't know much about history... --
Imagine looking at the post-WWII economic boom in the United States and saying, well, we better not try THAT again.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
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Man of the people --
Trump, who campaigned on grocery prices, served caviar to his Mar-a-Lago guests
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 9:27 PM
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What's that Musk-y smell? Henceforth you shall refer to the President as "President Kekius Maximus!" --
The "Kek" reference is a very 2017, alt-right thing. The person who pushed it into the discourse in that year was Sargon of Akkad, a British fascist who cut his teeth during Gamergate. His account was banned from Twitter in 2019 and then was reinstated by Musk in 2022. www.bbc.com/news/article...
— Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 11:46 AM
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You getting a security clearance: Doctorate in computer science, five tours of duty in Afghanistan, Medal of Honor winner. But you smoked a joint in high school, so… Them getting a security clearance: We can overlook doing heroin with Epstein visiting Clone Hitler’s secret Nazi moon base.
— Starfish Who Can’t Think Something Witty (@irhottakes.bsky.social) December 31, 2024 at 8:43 AM
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Brainworm sez: "Vaccines, no! Narcotics, yes!" --
RFK Jr. was not only addicted to heroin from his teens into adulthood, he’s broadcasting his bizarre belief that narcotics helped him excel academically. "I did very, very poorly in school, until I started doing narcotics," Kennedy said on “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast during the 2024…
— Stephanie Kennedy (@wordswithsteph.bsky.social) December 31, 2024 at 9:38 PM
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Russian stuff blowing up --
⚡️Ukraine downs 2 Russian helicopters in sea drone attack. Two Russian helicopters were downed in a recent strike by the Ukrainian-made Magura V5 naval strike drones, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) reported. HUR earlier said on Dec. 31 that only one helicopter had been destroyed.
— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 2, 2025 at 7:58 AM
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Digging those vibes --
We saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe
— Buck AE Down (@buckdown.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 2:06 AM
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Hey, we saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe.
— Bob McWilliams (@radiobob.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 12:12 AM
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hey we saw you from across the bar and we really dig your vibe
— GET OUT OF MY WAY! (@getoutofmyway.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 7:15 AM
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If his lips are moving... (our emphasis):
On Wednesday morning, hours after a man drove a pickup truck into New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans, killing 10 people, President-elect Donald J. Trump falsely suggested on social media that his condemnations of undocumented immigrants had been validated.
“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” Mr. Trump said on his website, Truth Social. “The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before,” he added falsely [Ed.: crime in nearly all categories dropped dramatically in 2024]. “Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.”
Mr. Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, added in his post, “The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”
Some early reports about the attack said the truck was driven across the border from Mexico into the United States. Officials have since identified the suspect as a U.S.-born citizen and Army veteran who lived in Texas, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar.
He drove what appeared to be a rented truck that carried an Islamic State flag, officials said. He died after exchanging gunfire with authorities.
Mr. Trump made concerns about undocumented immigrants crossing the border central to his 2024 campaign, and has promised the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history once he takes office...
Four more years of the Malignant Fascist spreading irresponsible, vicious lies meant to stoke hatred and fear and to bolster his fascist, racist narratives. There's almost no point in documenting or even keeping count of the lies anymore (how many times around the world have these particular lies gone before being corrected?), and even if one did do that, we believe it wouldn't matter to most of those 77 million.
I tell you there is nothing in the world
only an ocean of to-morrows,
a sky of to-morrows.
-- Carl Sandburg, "Prairie," Cornhuskers, January 1, 1918
Well, we’re still exhausted by the first two- plus decades of our 21st Century, as you also may be. Unplugging from time to time is both necessary and healthy, though we’re still not fully plugged in to life in America in 2025 (and may never totally be again). Meanwhile, we've found joy and purpose in other pursuits that we hope will continue to balance our perspectives in other parts of our lives. And there is that ocean, that sky of tomorrows ahead.
* * * *
Suffice it to say our experiences over the past decade have made us more cynical about “American democracy” and it’s many flaws (hello, Electoral College, broken judicial system, and lifetime SCOTUS appointments; we miss you, Fairness Doctrine), some perhaps fatal. It has led us to this place as a nation, and to the Trump kakistocracy, degenerates, and unelected "dipshits" like "President-elect Musk." The death of "the greatest ex-President" on December 29 provided a sober reminder of how far we've fallen in our valuation of character in the people we elect to be our Presidents.
But to completely disengage is to betray those who have come before us to fight for the values we hold dear, some giving their lives. So, forward, fighting.
Over the past weeks we've assembled a few loosely organized impressions about where we are one quarter of the way through the century, not much of which may be very different from what others have been saying post-election, but it's what we've got for now.
1/6/21 and 11/5/24
Since that chart was produced, the MF's margin has shrunk to 1.4 percent. The election was decided by 229,766 votes across Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. But, please media and MAGAts, tell us more about that "mandate"!
Always keep in mind that more than 75 million of us voted to keep the MF’s grubby little fingers off of the levers of power. We have agency, unless we cede it through timidity, lack of focus, or inaction. We're ready to fight, and we want our political leaders to fight, too.
Say it's name
Following that attempted coup and for the four years following, many recognized the rising fascism in the MAGA/ Republican Party. It shouldn’t have taken two military leaders who worked closely with the MF (Gens. Milley and Kelly) four years to call him what he so clearly is: a fascist. But compared to others, they were truth-tellers, albeit tardy ones. Where we the others?
Certainly not the media. Much of the purportedly "mainstream" media, apparently hedging its electoral bets, liked to engage in MF normalizing (or “sanewashing”) before, during, and after the campaign. Not wanting to be seen to “take sides,” they (with few exceptions) refused to provide an honest analysis of the MAGA movement and its leader, preferring instead to concentrate on Biden's age and to use terms like “populist” instead of fascist, and descriptors like “dark” instead of sick, and calling lies “misrepresentations,” and his Cabinet picks "unconventional." (And how about the one that's in a cult? No, not just the MAGA cult!). An hour's worth of MF dementia- speech would usually be boiled down to one or two anodyne soundbites. If you followed politics for the past 10 years, you have all the examples you need of media complicity, so we won’t belabor the point. On the other hand, Democratic accomplishments were ignored or minimized for 4 years. And we’ve seen the oligarchs owning the Washington Post and LA Times squashing Harris endorsements, and yakking hacks on tv rushing to kiss the MF’s ring.
But, as Timothy Snyder said:
Fascism is a phenomenon, not a person. Just as Trump was always a presence, so is the movement he has created. It is not just a matter of the actual fascists in his movement, who are scarcely hiding, nor of his own friendly references to Hitler or his use of Hitlerian language (“vermin,” “enemy within”). He bears responsibility for what comes next, as do his allies and supporters.
Yet some, and probably more, of the blame rests with our actions and analysis. Again and again, our major institutions, from the media to the judiciary, have amplified Trump’s presence; again and again, we have failed to name the consequences. Fascism can be defeated, but not when we are on its side.
Speaking of which —
Institutionalists will not save us
You know Masha Gessen’s first hand observation that institutions will not save us from authoritarianism. By the same token institutionalizes haven’t and won’t save us either. Unfortunately, there are many such powerful people cosseted in the clubby past that need to get out of the way, or be pushed if necessary. We’re talking about anyone who still harbors the notion that there are “norms” that still need to be observed, especially now that one bad faith party has completely abandoned those norms. As Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern put it:
[W]hen the institutionalist rubber meets the temporal road, the Donald Trump character wins every single time. While one side doesn’t feel any compunction about ignoring the law, the other is hesitant to upend a nonbinding institutional norm. Lawlessness appears to be an agreed-upon outcome, a literal get-out-of-jail-free card, for whichever entity evinces the most contempt for the law.
Now we have the gut- wrenching spectacle of Joe Biden welcoming the MF to the Oval Office on November 13, saying “congratulations” and “welcome, welcome back” to the person his entire party was calling a fascist and existential threat to America just a week earlier! On top of that, Biden plans, in the best tradition of institutionalism, to attend the MF’s inauguration for a “smooth transition of power” to America’s first fascist president. (“Fascism can be defeated, but not when we are on its side.” — T. Snyder, above.). And he's apparently going to be joined by dozens of Democratic Senators and Representatives! Talk about having a tin ear. What a horrible signal to send to people fighting for democracy everywhere!
 |
| Nope! |
There are also the Congressional institutionalists like Rep. James “Pardon Trump” Clyburn, and clubby Senate norms upholder Sen. Chuck Schumer. Some Democratic pols like the suddenly exasperating Colorado Gov. Jared "Brainworm for HHS!" Polis and Sinemanchin-in-waiting Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (don't be shocked if he follows their political trajectory!) are helping define that already well- worn term “anticipatory obedience.” Clearly, each of these have their own motivation and degree of institutional fealty, and more examples will surely follow in the weeks and months ahead. As they do, they need to be called out for their complicity, for valuing “norms” that no longer exist over the fight against American fascism.
Democrats need to get out of their post- election defensive crouch, and turn to a new generation of leaders. And we need the leadership to act like an opposition party, not a bunch of wishy- washy enablers.
Other inquiring minds want to know --
"Democracy Dies in Dumbness"
Unfortunately, the objective truth is that our country is filled to the gunwale with magical thinkers and stupid, uninformed, indifferent people at best and Constitution- shredding fascists at worst. And not recognizing the false premise of an electorate operating on the basis of facts and truth is highly problematic for Democrats:
In a country where more than half of adults have literacy below a sixth-grade level, ambient information, however thin and wrong, is more powerful than actual facts. It has been the Democrats’ long-held premise that access to the truth will set the public free. They have corrected misinformation and sought to drop data to individual doors. This year’s contest shows that this premise is wrong. A majority of the American public doesn’t believe information that goes against what it thinks it knows—and a lot of what it thinks it knows originates in the brain of Donald Trump. He has polluted the well of received wisdom and what passes for common sense in America. And, until Democrats, too, figure out how to message ambiently, they’ll find themselves fighting not just a candidate but what the public holds to be self-evident truths.
For example, Americans' ignorance of their own demographics also plays into what we see as a not- so- subtle paranoid racism that a 2022 YouGov poll revealed:
... Americans tend to vastly overestimate the size of minority groups. This holds for sexual minorities, including the proportion of gays and lesbians (estimate: 30%, true: 3%), bisexuals (estimate: 29%, true: 4%), and people who are transgender (estimate: 21%, true: 0.6%).
It also applies to religious minorities, such as Muslim Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%) and Jewish Americans (estimate: 30%, true: 2%). And we find the same sorts of overestimates for racial and ethnic minorities, such as Native Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%), Asian Americans (estimate: 29%, true: 6%), and Black Americans (estimate: 41%, true: 12%).
Then there's the "please don't give us what we voted for" numbnuts (not to worry; they'll never blame the MF).
That so many Americans are walking around with those particular bees buzzing in their empty bonnets makes us somehow relieved that 90 million eligible chose not to vote in 2024. At least these slugs.
But, rest assured, as Jimmy Kimmel wisely said on November 6 after the election of the MF,
"It was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him. It was a bad night for everyone who voted for him, too. They just don't realize it yet."
We have a feeling they won't have long to wait.
They have met the enemy, and it is U.S.
Joshua Zeitz has written that the election of the MF to a second term means the end of the American Century framework. While we, along with Zeitz, don’t necessarily believe that’s all bad, it could have significant impacts on our prosperity and for lack of a better term, “the world order.” A range of MF policy proposals like mass immigrant deportation, tariffs, and disengaging from NATO and other alliances play into this “end of the modern era,” as Zeitz puts it.
As institutions and norms are under assault or have collapsed in this country, so too are they endangered by the MF’s “America First” white nationalism/ fascism, which openly admires and will seek to mimic the regimes of Putin, Orban and other authoritarians. While some foreign leaders have shown a willingness to play up to the MF (Macron thinking he’s the voice of Europe now; Trudeau and Sheinbaum to forestall tariffs; Zelenskyy to preserve his country), bullying neighbors and allies, picking ludicrous fights, and abandoning or weakening alliances built over 70 years will only hasten our isolation and weaken our influence in the world, to the great delight of said authoritarians. It’s no wonder it’s been reported that several intelligence services of friendly countries have already indicated they may not be sharing top secret intelligence with our services (with the incompetent, compromised clown car that is the MF’s national security team, who could blame them?). Instead of America made great again, this is the period that history will mark where America’s decline accelerated.
“The arc of the moral universe owes us an apology”*
“President Trump.” Project 2025. Pardons for January 6 insurrectionists. MF off scot- free. Climate change ignored. Fascist kakistocracy. Crackpots in charge of health policy. Threats to repeal ACA. Oligarchs making policy across government. Social Security and Medicaid cuts on table. Women’s and LGTBQ rights rolled back 50 years. Federal agency functions targeted for privatization or “deletion.” Gutting public education. Mass deportations. Birthright citizenship challenged. Legal system compromised and under threat. More SCOTUS appointments? Police reform dead. Voting rights and free elections attacked. Retribution for political and legal foes. White nationalism. Misogyny. Toxic masculinity. Endless MF grifting. Rampant nepotism and cronyism. “Legacy media” cowed and fascist media bolstered. "I did my own research!" Alliances abandoned or undercut and enemies emboldened. Diplomacy through flattering the narcissist. "Buying Greenland" (again). Annexing Canada (!). At least 4 more years of lies, hate, racism, bigotry, misogyny, incompetence, chaos, corruption, etc., etc.
What was that about the arc of the moral universe, long as it is, bending toward justice?
Here’s the reality. Justice will never be delivered to us on Noah's great rainbow. It has to be fought for, generation after generation. It’s not a gift that the passive receive. It’s not an entitlement. And, yes, there are millions of evil, ignorant, bigoted people who are fighting over the long haul to make sure that justice is never delivered, but if it is, it’s "Wilhoit’s law" justice.
We are (somewhat) fortunate in that the opposition is fundamentally a chaotic clown show, led by the billionaire boys club's President- elect Musk, leading around a weak MF. The recent CR humiliation for the MF foreshadows more troubles to come for the MF and his un- American agenda, as does the budding MAGA nut v. nut civil war:
But chaos, while it can work in our favor from time to time, is the point for these "chaos monkeys," after all. Their capacity for doing great, lasting damage to this country should never be minimized and certainly not welcomed.
But, again, this is no time to despair or withdraw.
We have no answers or particular insights as far as electoral strategies or issue messaging or candidate selection, etc. But we can say this: As we begin another dark era in America, we must each find ways of our own choosing, capitalizing on our individual strengths and abilities, making what sacrifices we each can, to fight for the freedoms, the rights, the values that so many before us fought and died for. We must. And in that fight, there are things we must not do.
We refer again to Prof. Snyder, who had this advice for us entering the first MF administration in 2016, which is still true today:
... Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die in unfreedom.
... Be a patriot. The incoming president is not. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.
Meanwhile, don’t let the bastards grind you down. Maybe some day in that ocean and sky of tomorrows, if we persevere, the arc will finally reach its just end.
Happy New Year.
_______________
* h/t Amanda Lehr, McSweeney’s.
